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While everybody was talking about the iPhone OS 4 event yesterday , Apple also quietly announced WebKit2 , a major contribution to the open source WebKit project that forms the basis of Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome browsers. One of the reasons that Google Chrome doesn't crash very often is that Google uses a split process model. Every tab in Chrome runs in a different process and a crashing plugin or bug only takes down this tab and not the whole browser. While Google had to develop this code from the ground up for Chrome, Apple is now making this technology a core part of the WebKit2 framework. Sponsor Here is how Apple's engineers Anders Carlsson and Sam Weinig describe WebKit2: WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it. What does this mean for users? First of all, Safari and every other application that uses WebKit, including the popular NetNewsWire RSS reader or the Konqueror browser for KDE, for example, will soon be able to rely on the same kind of crash protection that Google Chrome currently offers. Microsoft's IE8 already features a similar crash-protection mechanism and as our own Sarah Perez noted earlier today , the latest beta version of Firefox ( Lorentz ) now also lets some processes (Flash, QuickTime and Silverlight) run in separate instances. Getting Ready for Multi-Core Browsing WebKit2 will also implement a number of APIs that will make applications more responsive. These will allow applications to render web content in the background without blocking other processes that the application wants to execute. As Stephen Shankland points out , this technique will also make it easier for developers (including Apple) to take advantage of multi-core chips. For a more detailed look at the technical side of WebKit2, also have a look a this document from the WebKit2 team. Discuss
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Apple Announces WebKit2: Wants to Make WebKit Browsers More Crash-Proof
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In the past, we've talked a bit about issues of gender and technology , but today, this blog post brought another important aspect of tech and discrimination to our attention. We polled some of our friends on Google Buzz and asked whether ageism is something they've seen at work or that has effected their lives. And the responses were interesting - although some say they try to be as even-handed as possible, others said that age discrimination exists at both ends of the spectrum, especially when it comes to landing a job. Let us know your experiences and opinions in the comments. Sponsor What Experts Say A 2001 article from CIO started a conversation about ageism in IT. The response was dramatic. "Within days of being asked 'Do CIOs Discriminate Against Older Workers?' about 200 readers had posted answers; a majority of them gave a resounding yes... workers age 55 and older make up only 6.8 percent of the IT workforce." A couple years later, a 2003 study from the International Journal of Selection and Assessment explored how older and middle-aged programmers fared in the tech workforce. Results showed "that age was negatively associated with both annual salary and job benefits levels." But in 2009, another study showed what could have been seen as a turning tide. "The study, ' The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom ,' found that... the United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom - not in spite of an aging population but because of it... The average age of U.S.-born technology founders when they started their companies was 39." What People on the Ground Say Perhaps the graying set are doing well as entrepreneurs, but what about when they apply to be programmers, information architects, web designers or other traditionally "young" jobs? In a lively conversation on our Buzz account , Aaron Hayes told us that ageism is alive and well, saying, "I turned 40 this year, and even though I can write Python circles around some... [and] have run several of my own small businesses - somehow, because the metabolic process of my cells has been occurring for several solar rotations beyond a subset of unspoken rules, I can be dismissed by some as a viable candidate for a startup. "And this apparently because people that have experience clearly can't have youthful enthusiasm, or passion." Even though, as Ruggero Domenichini said in the same thread, older employees might have "less ego, nothing to prove, been through failure [and] lived more." And person after person said that they had either hired older programmers and been totally pleased with their fit and performance or - in one case - not hired someone because of age and regretted it ever since. What Do You Say? We're interested to know what your experience has been, either as a younger startup exec faced with hiring decisions or as an older programmer working in IT. On a personal level, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the older techies in my life - especially as I begin to earn a few gray hairs of my own. My old-as-dirt dad is a fabulous network engineer, and a lot of the best developers and entrepreneurs I know have lived long enough to have a mature, realistic and stable view of their abilities, the ecosystem and their colleagues. And in an amendment of the famous "Never trust anyone over 30" quotation, I'd have to say I'd gladly take the word of a 50-year-old who knew his stuff over a 25-year-old entrepreneur starting his first company. And the hypothetical 25-year-old would do well to take his older colleague's advice seriously, as well. As always, let us know what you think in the comments. Discuss
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Open Thread: Old Fogeys v. Young Whippersnappers, Ageism in Tech
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While it is relatively cheap to get a web startup off the ground these days, other industries aren't as lucky. Take green-tech or medical technology for instance; at TED this year Bill Gates said that the minimum investment the world needs to create sustainable eco-friendly renewable energy is "only" in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars - and that's just to get started. It's industries like these that require Angel and VC investments at the early-stage level to get significant innovations off the ground, and a government tax credit proposed for angels in Minnestoa could encourage them to dole out more cash for high-tech ventures. Sponsor Earlier this month in St. Paul, "witness after witness" spoke in support of a bill that would create $32 million in tax credits available to angel investors, writes Thomas Lee of MedCity News . "Entrepreneurs, investors, university officials, industry groups warned lawmakers that the lack of early stage capital meant innovative start-ups in Minnesota would either die or move to another state," Lee adds. With a growing community of medical innovation, Minnesota is attempting to play catch-up with its neighbor state Wisconsin whose similar tax credit has provided rocket fuel for innovation. Lee quotes a report from the Wisconsin Angel Network which says that angel investments and number of deals tripled in the first three years of the state's program. He adds that three bio-tech spin-offs from the University of Wisconsin were bought for more money in the last three years than in the last 25 years of Minnesota-based university spin-offs. "VitalMedix Inc., a promising drug company from the University of Minnesota, recently moved to Hudson, [Wisconsin]" Lee says. Hudson is just across the Minnesota/Wisconsin border less than 20 miles from St. Paul. "Miromatrix Inc., based on the work of Dr. Doris Taylor, warn they will leave the state if they can't find angel financing." One reason for the success of similar credits in other states is that it acts as an insurance for angels when they make risky investments. Most innovation is a risky investment because it's an unproven model, and providing a tax credit safety net for the angels could provide the much-needed investment dollars to the companies with tomorrow's innovations. Should state governments be putting aside money to backup their local angel investors? Or are there better, cheaper ways to boost innovation? Will we ever see anything like this for Internet startups? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Discuss
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Do Tax Credits for Angel Investors Boost Innovation?
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